MFW: JOHN RICHMOND F/W 2014

John Richmond and I are roughly the same age, have similar tastes in music, and similar styles of dress (though he does occasionally wear a white t-shirt). So, when his soundtrack this morning started belting out 70s rock, I was neither surprised nor disappointed. That his fashion was largely a re-mix of 1970s rock wear was equally enjoyable. Here’s what you need to know:

This is primarily street wear, but it’s the kind of street where one wears sequins after 5. There’s a lot of leather, to be sure, but it’s contrasted with a more-than-sufficient amount of lace. So, while you want to wear this out, you might want to take into consideration one’s exact neighborhood before actually doing so. This won’t go over equally well everywhere.

Liking Annie Lennox is probably critical to liking the first few looks, given that her face is mirrored in profile on bright orange sweatshirt and hoodies. Richmond has dressed Annie multiple times and it was obvious today that she is still one of his favorites. Just how smart an idea it was to actually put her face so prominently on the clothes and one of those things we’ll just have to wait until fall and see how it sells.

If you don’t already have a pair of thigh-high boots, you’re going to need some by this fall. Just go ahead and plan on making the purchase. This collection is heavy with them, done in various takes on black leather, of course. We’ve seen boots like this enough this season to officially declare it a trend. They do go with a lot of this season’s looks, so just consider it a necessary investment in your wardrobe.

Leather has to dominate any rock-and-roll wardrobe and it certainly does this collection. While John starts with some bright pops of color, once he goes black he stays there the rest of the collection. I’ll predict that the biker’s jackets with the blinged out skulls on the back are probably going to be best sellers.

Skulls are also a decorative requirement for anything rock-based from the 70s and there are plenty of them, both in prints as well as sequined and embroidered on the clothes. This is a theme that plays very well into the clothing and one that’s likely to have a cross-generational appeal, which will help sales.

The one questionable aspect of this collection comes with John’s use of sheer panels. Actually, it’s not so much that he uses them, but where he has chosen to place them. Winner of most distracting feature in a woman’s dress is a sheer lace panel sewn diagonally right across the hips. You know, right at that point where we know whether or not you’re wearing any underwear. He does this more than once, so there’s no claiming it was accidental. If we’re totally honest, that’s a 100% rock-and-roll move, but how many women will actually wear that look?

Okay, let me re-phrase that. Of the women who will wear that look, how many of them actually look good doing so? That’s probably the more pertinent question.

John Richmond gives us a very fun rock-and-roll collection for this fall/winter that brings out the rebel biker in everyone. Rev those engines, now, and let’s ride!